Our View: The center is where it's at

As of this writing, the only election results were from Dixville Notch and Hart's Location in New Hampshire: Too soon to call.

Comment

southcoasttoday.com

Writer

Posted Nov. 7, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Posted Nov. 7, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

As of this writing, the only election results were from Dixville Notch and Hart's Location in New Hampshire: Too soon to call.

But whether the results hold victory for President Barack Obama or for Mitt Romney, we must do all we can to ensure that it's a victory for Americans.

According to Michael Grunwald's new book, "The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era," GOP leadership four years ago made a strategic choice to withhold support from the president, on the assumption that refusing to compromise would render Obama's campaign pledge to pursue bipartisanship a broken promise.

They decided against a "walk-back" strategy in dealing with the president's efforts to pass a stimulus package early in his term. The "walk-back" works by floating a fictitious report of GOP support for the president, followed by subsequent reports of dwindling support so GOP membership can get the sense — completely fabricated — of growing momentum away from Obama.

At the last minute, however, GOP whip Eric Cantor decided to simply push for 100 percent opposition to the stimulus plan. It worked.

While the antagonists in that recent display of divisive, unproductive and unprincipled politics happened to be Republicans, neither side has ever been above dirty tricks.

The only way to assure that Americans are the winners is if both Republicans and Democrats alike decide to make it so.

A second Obama term must be seen by the Republican Party as proof Americans want the change they voted for four years ago but were denied through GOP stall tactics and tea party inflexibility. Democrats should reject over-confidence and seek to restore dialog.

A Romney presidency must be seen by the Democratic Party not as an opportunity for payback, and instead should turn its energy toward across-the-aisle compromise such as was prevented during Obama's first term. And Republicans should not see it as a universal mandate for the Romney-Ryan agenda. The polls for months have shown the electorate is too evenly divided to promote that.

Tracking Romney's favorability rating over the past year is instructive. It remained lower than his unfavorability rating until this past October, when his campaign rhetoric began its migration toward the center and away from the more reactionary and conservative branches of the Republican Party.

Likewise, Obama's message on foreign policy, economics and more has aimed for the center as well, creating the neck-and-neck race.

Not only is the center where most Americans find their political philosophy, it's the place where compromise is most likely to emerge.

As the Executive and Legislative branches step forward today, we must do our best to remind Congress and the president that America needs compromise from Washington. We need good-faith negotiators who can accept that there might need to be some new taxes and programs, and that we have to do away with some old taxes and programs.

A one-sided, extreme approach from either side will not work. The true, unspoken mandate from an evenly divided electorate is that we are a moderate people and our elected officials need to represent us with that in mind.